Search Results for: 2003

During the first two weeks in January, the most popular album in the country was the soundtrack to “Dreamgirls.” But that statistic was less impressive than it might have been, because for those two weeks, “Dreamgirls” sold around 60,000 copies each week, which made for the two lowest totals for a #1 album in the history of the SoundScan era, which began in 1991. Granted, January is always a pretty slow month for album sales and releases. But around that same time, the new Fall Out Boy album, Infinity on High, leaked online and was one of the most eagerly… Read more »

The Police came one step closer to confirming a reunion tour on Tuesday (January 30) when it was announced that the trio will kick off the February 11 Grammy Awards telecast. The group, led by Sting, has reportedly been rehearsing for a summer tour, and their opening slot at the 49th annual awards show seems to confirm that the announcement of the full-fledged reunion is on. As recently as last week, a spokesperson for the band – which also includes drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers – would not confirm the tour. The trio, which won five Grammys in… Read more »

LOS ANGELES CA – Drive-Thru Records’ recording artist HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW has decided to disband due to professional and creative differences, it was announced yesterday via the Drive-Thru Records website. The New Jersey based group expressed their gratitude in this statement: “To our families, friends and most importantly, our fans, thank you for all your love and support over the past six years.” HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW was formed in Stanhope, NJ by lead singer Joe Reo and lead guitarist Rob Freeman, who met in high school. The group signed to Drive-Thru Records in summer of 2002 and released… Read more »

Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” led the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts for an eighth consecutive week Thursday, but barely edged the new single from Fall Out Boy. The pop punk band’s “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s An Arms Race” debuted at No. 2 thanks to 162,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is the highest bow for a band since radio-only titles joined the chart in December 1998. The last group to start as well or better was Aerosmith, who debuted at No. 1 under prior Hot 100 rules with “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” in September 1998. In… Read more »

For those who haven’t yet, somehow, had their fill of Paris Hilton, there’s a new Web site that has posted a seemingly endless offering of the celebutante’s belongings. The Web site, ParisExposed.com, launched Tuesday. It boasts that it has an array of Hilton photographs, home videos, diaries, love letters, recorded phone conversations and phone numbers of friends and celebrities, all left behind at a Los-Angeles based storage facility. The items were sold to an unidentified buyer after a third party failed to make payments to the facility, and eventually wound up in the hands of a broker aiming to sell… Read more »

JC Chasez candidly describes his new single as being “about your girlfriend getting knocked up by another man.” So just what inspired him and the song’s producer, Justin Timberlake, to write “Until Yesterday” ? “It’s not autobiographical,” Chasez promptly noted. “We just wanted to push the limits. It just seems like everybody has heard a breakup song a hundred times or a thousand times. And they’ve heard, ‘I don’t like you anymore’ a thousand times, or ‘You make me sick, you used me, blah blah blah.’ So we thought we’d pepper it with some drama and it made it an… Read more »

Much has already been written about the Shins’ new album, Wincing the Night Away (which comes out Tuesday), including the fact that the majority of the songs were inspired by singer/songwriter James Mercer’s bouts of “crippling insomnia.” Whether or not that’s entirely true is debatable , but what’s more interesting is the fact that, for the first time in almost 15 years of playing together, the Shins have become a band about which much is written. And more pertinently, very little of it is about their career-making shout-out in Zach Braff’s 2004 flick, “Garden State,” or one of their songs… Read more »

In addition to its always eclectic, star-studded lineup, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has established a reputation for frequently landing the hotly sought return of a major indie-rock figurehead. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times , this year’s major coup is a reunion of thrashing political rockers Rage Against the Machine, who have not played together for seven years. The band is expected to get together for a one-off headlining show at the eighth edition of the three-day festival, which they last played in 1999. Also reportedly joining Rage on the bill are Coachella veterans… Read more »

Denny Doherty, one-quarter of the 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas, known for their soaring harmony on hits like “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday,” died today (Jan. 19) at 66. His sister Frances Arnold said the singer/songwriter died at his home in Mississauga, a city just west of Toronto, after a short illness. The group burst on the national scene in 1966 with the top 10 smash “California Dreamin’.” The Mamas and the Papas broke new ground by having women and men in one group at a time when most singing groups were unisex. John Phillips, the group’s… Read more »

As shock waves roared through the hip-hop community in the wake of the arrests of DJ Drama (Tyree Simmons), DJ Don Cannon (Donald Cannon) and 17 associates in Atlanta on Tuesday, more facts came to light regarding the nature and extent of the raid on Drama’s offices and reactions to it throughout the community. At press time, the pair, who were arrested on felony charges stemming from a magistrate’s warrant under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, were in Fulton County Superior Court for a bail hearing, which will determine their bond . More than 50,000 mixtapes were seized in… Read more »